Safe Speed Forums

Just shot past some Specs on the M25 anti clockwise, not sure of the junction but before the M11, maybe 26 or 27. Was keeping up with general traffic flow at maybe 80-85 max suspect closer to 75. No average speed warning signs or speed limit, nobody keeping to 70 and a lot of cones moved to the side of the the road hence I though they must be inactive/old cameras. Now not so sure........

Can anyone from down that way put me out of me misery, or is it a 14 day wait????? Help!

Firstly, I haven't ever heard of SPECS being used for 70mph sections of motorway before, only 40/50mph roadworks sections "to protect the workforce" (whether they're there or not). Are you aware of any roadworks that have finished or are just about to start? In that case it's unlikely that the cameras are currently active.

If they are active, there's still hope for you. SPECS is only type approved for single lane use, so if you changed lanes between each live pair of cameras, they will have ignored you whatever speed you were doing. The trouble is that you can never be certain which cameras are dummies (if any), so if there are more "camera points" than there are lanes, that's not a foolproof way of avoiding detection...you just may have been lucky.

Also, how many individual cameras were there at each camera point? Since it's one camera per lane, you may well find that only one or two lanes were covered, and if so, it'll be the outer one/two lanes. So if you were in lane one a lot, again you might well be OK. (That's the one thing I like about SPECS: it's the only time that middle/outer lane-hogging tw@ts get punished with anything like enough regularity!)

Finally, car speedos tend to overread by up to 10%, so "80-85 max suspect closer to 75" sounds like it was probably an average of less than 79. In practice no-one is ever prosecuted for any speed below 79.

All in all I would say there's a pretty high chance of you being OK. SPECS is digital and highly automated, and it's said that when someone is fined, the notice of intended prosecution is often printed out and posted the same day as detection. So after a few days you can be fairly certain that you're in the clear.

So I wouldn't worry, and besides, there's nothing you can do about it now either way. (Having said that if you do get a fine, FIGHT IT! In that case you need to visit http://www.pepipoo.com .)

HTH.

I've never heard of them being used for general motorway use either, it did look like just ended roadworks, loads of cones on the side of the road and a couple of temporary matrix signs showing a clear signal.

I generally try to keep as close to lane one as possible however due to the all to common practice of lorries driving within inches of each other lane one itself rarley gets a look-in so I woud most likely have been swapping between two and three.

I only remember seeing two cameras that seemed to be pointing to two and three, can't be certain though.

According to my GPS the speedo on my BMW1 overeads by about 5 -6 mph at 70-80 so reckon my speed would have been closer to maybe 80 max.


Thanks very much for the info, makes one feel a little less panicky at the very least.

On a closing note I find the constant staring at my speedo actually distracts me from the job in hand i.e driving. It's bad enough avoiding the rest of the assorted loonies on our roads without the constant worry of a split second over-speed (usually to avoid a red 400 series Rover drifiting across lanes), causing yet another fine and three points.

Sorry about the rant!

Is it always the same red 400 series Rover?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

No, it's part of a highly organised gang of geezers with peaked caps on and big bags of boiled sweets on the dash. They're controlled and paid by the Government, their mission....... To disrupt traffic flow to the point where you'll be forced to use public transport. Or they may be robots, it's one or the other

Ah ha, copied this directly from the FAQ on the SCS site

http://www.speedcheck.co.uk/FAQs.htm



I especially looked out for these signs and saw nothing, no 'box brownie' signs, no 40 or 50 signs, no 'protecting the workforce' signs etc etc. Fishy..

To quote the highway agency



However... I dont really know what 'Enforcement Ready' means. And if that has changed since.

There are overnight works at the moment, but there ARE NO boxed brownie signs at all, even when the overnight works are in place. Infact, there was very little in the way of signage when I passed the other night. I was appauled quite frankly!

Based on the lack of Boxed Brownie signs and the fact these cameras arent even listed by the Essex Saftey Cam partnership, anyone have any further ideas on use for enforcement?

Do they legally have to provide boxed brownie signs?!

They certainly arent on the SCS list of current cameras and no one has put them on the well known online lists...

The LTI 2020 has never been type approved for motorcycles, but that doesn't stop you from being nicked based on their evidence if caught.


That certainly used to be the case, however I do believe the software was modified a long time ago to cope with the lane changers.

If it is still the case, then the SPECS cameras at the M3/M25 roadworks aren't worth shit

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?